Sensitive valve mechanism



June 15, 1937. c CAMPBELL 2,083,174

SENSITIVE VALVE MECHANISM Filed May 15, 1935 IN VENTOR.

way/Y C. Ckwpifzz F. 2 v BY ATTORNEY.

, Patented June '15, 1937 UNITED STATES SENSITIVE VALVE MECHANISM The Cincinnati his 0. Campbell, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Milling Mac hlne' Company.

. Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application May is, 1935, sci-m No. 21,179

1 Claim. (CL 1375-153) This invention relates to valves and more particularly to means for improving the sensitivity of control valves.

In the development of hydraulic control mecha- 5 nisms there has been a growing demand for inthe fits'are made or how careful themachine work has been. performed in the manufacture of the valve. I refer to the situation in-which a movable valve plunger has been carefully lapped in its bushing so that the desired minute film lubricating clearance exists between the plunger and its 2 bore. When such a valve remains stationary for any period of time, it seems to settle in some way into contact with the wall of the bore, necessitating a relatively high initial pressure to start movement thereof again. Although there may be some excuse for this when the plunger lies horizontal, and the attraction of gravity causes it to settle, nevertheless the same thing is true when the valve is supported vertically.

In highly sensitive circuits it is desired that the valve be responsive to small variable forces and that it respond instantaneously thereto; when static friction is present, which seems to be the'case when a valve plunger has been at rest for any'period of time, it takes a large'r initiating force to start movement thanwould be the case otherwise, and this results in delay in starting with an ensuing acceleration resulting in extra momentum to deal with, which brings about the general result that the valve is sluggish in opera- 40 tion. If the valve is utilized to control the position of a tool, for instance. delay means inaccuracy in the work, and if too great a ,force is re-' quired to start the valveto move, small. forces will have no effect on the valve and sensitiveness is lost. I

One of the objects of this invention is to provide means for maintaining a valve plunger in a "nascent? condition; that is, free from static friction. Another object of this invention is to improve the sensitivity of a controlvalve plunger whereby thesame will be responsive to small forces for varying the flow in a control circuit.

A further object of this invention is to provide for continuously rotating a valve plunger without the necessity of making any external mechanical connections thereto for such p p s An additional object of this invention is to provide fluid operable means for rotating a valve plunger which is self-contained in the plunger.

Other objectsand advantages of the present invention should be readily apparent by reference to the following specification considered in conjunction with the. accompanying drawing illustrative of one embodiment thereof, but it will'be understood that any modification may be made in the specific structural details within the scope I of the appended claim without departing from or exceeding the spirit of the invention.

Referring to the drawing in which like referencenumerals indicatelike or similar parts:

Figure '1 is a sectional view showing -a valve plunger embodying the principles of this invention. v

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

In the drawing the'reference numeral ll indi-' cates a valve housing having'a central bore II in which is fitted a valve sleeve l2. Reciprocably mou'ntedin thevalve sleeve is -a valve plunger ll. e

As an example of a controlling circuit, it may I be assumed that the valve housing has apres'sure supply channel it and a mind delivery channels l 5 and it which are connected, for example, to opposite ends of a hydraulic motor whereby when the pressure pipe It is connected to the channel It the hydraulic motor will be caused to operate in one direction and when connected to the channel It the motor will be caused to operate in an oppositev direction.

Itmay be further assumed that it is desired to control the operation of this motor from a tracer ll which is positioned for scanning a pattern in the conventional manner of operation of pattern controlled, engraving, or profiling machines. This tracer may have an integral hemispherical a mounted a ball Ill. The lower end of the valve member is by which the tracer is supported for v plunger may also be' provided with a cavity ll 7 which engages the upper side of the ball, and the arrangement is such that when the tracer I1 is either laterally deflected or axially moved up- I ward, the valve plunger will also be moved. This valve plunger may be so formed as to variably control the fiow from channel It to'chan- 'nelsli and I 6. To this end the sleeve I! may be provided with annular grooves 22, 23 and 24 so positioned as to be in constant communication with channels l4, l and I6, and each annular groove may have radial bores such as 25 formed 5 therein, communicating with the interior bore 26 of the valve sleeve The sleeve may also have an additionalpair of annular grooves 21 and 28 which are in permanent communication with an exhaust channel 29. These annular grooves may 0 also have a series of radial bores 25 communicating with the interior of the valve sleeve bore. The valveplunger l3 may be provided with a pair of annular grooves 30 and 3| thereby forming an intermediate spool 32 which is movable relative to the port 33 for connecting the same alternately to ports 34 and 35. In other words, when the valve plunger moves downward, the port 33 will be connected to theport 34 and the port 35 will be connected to a port 36. This will cause pressure fluid to flow to the channel l5 and will connect the channel l6 to exhaust and the fluid operable motor will be caused to move in onedirection. When the valve plunger moves upward, the port 33 will be connected to port 35 to cause pressure fluid to flow in channel l6, and channel l5 will be connected to the exhaust port 31. From this it will be seen that upward and downward movement of the valve plunger will-cause reversible operation of the motor. This valve however, is not merely a reversing valve in the ordinary sense of the term, but is adapted to be variably positioned by the tracer for stopping all flow to channels I5 and I6; determining the channel to be connected to pressure; and varying the rate of flow to the connected channel.

It will be apparent that in order for the spool 32 to move in both directions relative to the port 33, that the hemispherical part l8 must be held in a slightly raised position with respect to its seat 38. This is the usual practice of such machines in order that when a depression is reached in the controlling pattern 39; that the tracer may move downward. \r

If the hydraulic motor connected to channels 45 I5 and I6 is utilized for positioning a tool with respect to a work piece for control by the tracer l1 through the medium -of valve plunger l3, it 7 will be apparent that this valve must be a sensitive valve and responsive to slight movements of the tracer and that the more sensitive the valve is and the quicker .it is in response to movements of the tracer, the more accurate will the pattern be reproduced. Furthermore, the force required tomove the valve should be very small so' that 55 the tracer will not bear heavily on the pattern and produce indentations therein which will mar the surface of the pattern and prevent its subse-' quent use for reproduction purposes. In the present instance, the weight of the valve member 0 I3 and of the tracer I! are the only things depended upon for maintaining the. point of the tracer in contact with the pattern.

It will be apparent that when the surface of the pattern is straight that the spool 32 will be in a 5 central position with respect to the port 33 and no flow in channels l5 and I6 will take place, with the result that the valve i3 will remain at rest.

On the other hand, if the surface of the pattern is undulating in nature, the spool will be alter- 70 nately moved up and down to effect continuous movement of the motor in opposite directions.

. It is during these periods of rest that a sensitive valve plunger of the nature disclosed tends to adhere in some way to the walls of the bore 26 and increase the force necessary to initiate subseaosav'm quent movement thereof. The present invention is directed to means for over-coming such a situation and setting up such a condition that the valve has no tendency to stick or adhere to the side walls of its containing bore. This is accomplished by utilizing part of the incoming pressure fluid to operate a re-action turbine which is connected to the valve plunger in such a manner that it will operate to continuously rotate the valve without introducing additional frictional problems.

This take-off from the fluid pressure line consists of a channel 40 which intersects the annular groove 22 and this channel is inter-drilled in the casing l0 and has a terminus at H which communicates with another annular groove 42 formed inv the sleeve l2. This annular groove has ports 43 which communicate with an annular groove 44 formed in the periphery of the valve plunger.

This annular groove is connected by a cross bore 45 to an axial bore 46 which terminates adjacent the upper end of the valve plunger and has an adjustable needle valve 41 inserted in the end thereof. This valve regulates the flow to the radial channels 46 and 49 which terminate as shown in Figure 2 in pipes 50 and 5| respectively, the ends of which are oppositely bent so that as the fluid escapes under pressure through the ends of these tubes, it sets up a reaction causing rotation of the valve plunger in the well-known manner of a reaction turbine.

The housing I0 is provided with a removable cap 52 which incloses the upper end of the valve plunger and serves to collect the oil escaping through the reaction turbine whereby the same will be returned through channel 53 to exhaust pipe 29.

In the operation of the device a source of fluid pressure is connected to channel I4 which immediately flows to the reaction turbine causing rotation of the valve plunger regardless of the position of the tracer, and this continuous rotation apparently creates and maintains a lubricating film of oil between the various spools of the valve plunger and the interior of the bore and it has been found that by this simple expedient the force required to move the plunger is only about twenty-five percent of what it would be without the use of this invention.

There has thus been provided a new and improved means for increasing the sensitivity of a control valve by decreasing the force required to move the same and increasing its spontaniety.

That which is claimed is:

In a valve mechanism the combination of a housing having a bore formed therein, a sleeve fixed in said bore having a plurality of annular grooves formed in the periphery thereof, channels formed in the housing and intersecting the respective grooves, one of said channels being adapted to be connected to a source of pressure, a valve plunger reciprocably mounted in said sleeve and having portions for interconnecting said grooves and varying the flow from said pressure source, a central bore formed in the plunger, a reaction turbine connected to the end of the plunger and interconnected for-supply from said central bore, an annular groove formed in said plunger, channel connections between said groove and central bore, and interdrilled channels in the housing interconnecting the pressure groove with said annular groove whereby said turbine will be continuously supplied with fluid pressure regardless of the axial position of said plunger. JOHN C. CAMPBELL. 

